This is a sampling from Bay Area News Group”s Political Blotter blog. Read more and post comments at www.ibabuzz.com/politics.

Nov. 30

A lawyer who helped then-Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina beat back a lawsuit that aimed to prevent the 2001 HP-Compaq merger now is about to host a fundraiser for Fiorina”s presidential campaign.

Boris Feldman, a partner at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, and his wife, Robin, will host a reception for Fiorina on Dec. 14 at their Palo Alto home. Tickets for the “New York Deli style luncheon” cost $500 per person — here”s hoping that pastrami is excellent — or $2,700 for a host-committee reception and photo opportunity with the candidate.

Fiorina will head to Las Vegas the next day, Dec. 15, for the next Republican presidential debate, hosted by CNN, Facebook and Salem Media. CNN personality Wolf Blitzer will be the moderator, joined by correspondent Dana Bash and conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt.

Fiorina, a former Los Altos Hills resident who proudly touts her time at HP”s helm despite experts” questioning of her business record, last visited the Bay Area in early October for a fundraising reception in Piedmont.

“One example is a court victory that prevented a shareholder and former director of Hewlett-Packard from stopping the company”s merger with Compaq Computer,” the publication reported. “At the trial, Feldman put then-HP CEO Carly Fiorina on the stand. By carefully preparing her, he made Fiorina a knowledgeable, persuasive witness. ”Too often litigators allow [senior executive] clients to look stupid for tactical reasons,” he says.”

Feldman told The New York Times in mid-September that Fiorina”s first foray onto the prime-time debate stage would be “a defining moment in Carly”s career.” Her poll numbers did improve sharply after that first showdown with front-runner Donald Trump, but the surge didn”t last: After a brief stint in third place nationwide with 11.8 percent of the vote in late September, she”s now in sixth place with 3.3 percent, according to an average of recent polls compiled by Real Clear Politics. In Iowa, she”s ranked sixth at 3.7 percent; in New Hampshire — where she”d been ranked second for a while — she”s now eighth, at 4.8 percent.

Before Fiorina gets here, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., will step up to the Bay Area campaign ATM with a fundraiser Dec. 7 in Mountain View (as previously reported here).

Nov. 30

In the wake of the mass shooting that claimed three lives at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado, U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer on Monday urged House Speaker Paul Ryan to disband the new committee targeting the health care organization.

Former Speaker John Boehner created the “Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives” in October to probe Planned Parenthood. Boxer, D-Calif., calls it a “witch hunt” against an organization that provides vital health care services and hasn”t broken the law.

Some Democrats have faulted the hot rhetoric slung by Republican lawmakers and presidential candidates against Planned Parenthood in recent months for inciting the kind of violence that occurred in Colorado.

“We should not and cannot continue this politically-motivated committee targeting Planned Parenthood, which is already costing taxpayers and helping to create a dangerous climate for legal health care in America,” Boxer wrote Monday to Ryan, R-Wis. “Since 1977, there have been 11 murders, 17 attempted murders, 42 bombings and 186 arsons against abortion clinics and providers.”

“It is time to stop the witch hunt against Planned Parenthood, stop the demonizing rhetoric and disband this committee immediately,” she wrote.